Pensacola State softball hoping playoffs serve as a culmination of trials and tribulations

The NJCAA Region 8 softball tournament gets underway this weekend from Longwood, Fla. with Pensacola State College (37-9) as a No. 1 seed.

It'll be the home team on the scoreboard during its opening-round game at 1 p.m. Friday versus Miami Dade College (29-26).

After earning a conference championship and finding many of its players named to the all-conference and all-state teams, PSC is ready to put the finishing touches on a superb 2022 campaign.

From past experiences to in-season trials, the Lady Pirates could form a deep push this postseason that sees them make a run at the national tournament.

Here are some notes on their preparedness for the playoffs:

Long time coming

Head coach Lyndsey Angus took over the program seven years ago, and her focus was to build a culture that would take care of the wins and losses. The way she explains it: grit.

Her definition of grit comes mostly with mindset; understanding that when you're at a two-year school, time is fleeting. You need to make the most of every game. As a Lady Pirate, your expectations should lay in improving every time you step on the field and taking pride in winning each conference game.

In her third year as the skipper, those teachings were starting to show on the diamond. That season, Pensacola State qualified for the state tournament but lost, and in her fourth season were even better, but narrowly missed a postseason bid.

With things starting to look up for PSC, the team went 21-4 in 2019-2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic squashed its momentum. The best season under her tutelage was wasted, but it lit a fire for the teams that followed.

"We were going places and everything shut down," Angus said. "That year was a weird year where who knows if we would have catapulted forward the next year without having that year … the hunger, everybody had that idea that we were shut down and didn't get to finish but that team … what they left behind, next year's team just built off that."

They went 30-9 the following season, losing again the first round of the state tournament in a nine-inning heartbreaker. Between COVID abruptly ending a spectacular season and close losses in tournament play, the Lady Pirates feel that they've paid their dues. Now is finally their time.

"Our goal (last year) was to go to the state and to set that as a strong building block to build on every year," Angus said. "When we did that last year, it made this year's goal not to just go, but to expect to go and now to do damage down there."

Losses out of the way

Albeit a strong season, PSC faced some hardship that came just in the nick of time.

Carrying a 26-3 record into the late parts of March, the Lady Pirates were due for some losses. Better to get them out of the way before the playoffs.

Starting with a March 20 loss to Northwest Florida State, the team lost five of their next nine games. One loss was suffered versus Chipola, they dropped another versus NWF State and then were swept by Gulf Coast State.

The squad batting .354 over the course of the season was only able to muster 15 runs through those five losses and their pitching staff, with an overall ERA of 2.24, allowed 33 runs. Things were backwards.

"It was a weird stretch," Angus said. "We had a couple of kids get sick, just the way the roster fell, the way the starting lineup fell and our bats kind of went cold, it was a weird stretch."

For a team that is usually singing and dancing in the dugout, the game seemed to dull for them a bit. Angus wasn't seeing the grit she's become accustomed to in her time as head coach.

Admittedly, she got on them a bit and kept things blunt. They needed to be better if they wanted to do anything meaningful later in the season.

"They were still energetic and excited to play, but you could see that they kind of felt bad for themselves because we weren't at full strength," Angus said. "We got behind, we weren't scoring runs … they started throwing the ball around a bit, we needed to have the team look at the defense and say, 'how are we going to get better?' because we weren't good enough."

The Lady Pirates responded, winning seven of the next eight to close out the regular season and claim the conference crown. Slumps are never fun, but this one was at least timely.

"I'm just happy that we went through it, it made us stronger," Angus said. "It made us double down and work harder in practice."

Committed to the mission

On April 30, Pensacola State College hosted a signing day for all of its athletes headed to the next stage of their careers. The softball team was represented by Avery Beauchaine who is committed to Division II Eckerd College and Cameron Buzzell who is headed to Division II Lynn University.

When your future is decided on, it's easy to get lost thinking ahead. But now is the time that they need to be most focused.

Entering the playoffs, Angus doesn't see the excitement regarding these signings as an obstruction. While more softball is in the future for these two athletes, them and the team remain most committed to what PSC softball stands for.

That will propel them not only during this postseason run, but also wherever they end up in the future.

"I'm going to be honest with them as to how to use softball to better their life," Angus said. "Softball is a piece of their life. How are they going to use it to build friendships, to build themselves, to get scholarship money, to further themselves in the world and if you really buy into that process, it's just a next step goal, it's not the end goal."

While their PSC careers hang in the balance over the weekend, what the program has instilled into them will keep them pushing for their current team this weekend and they'll carry that Lady Pirate identity with them in the future.

"It doesn't dawn on them that (their college signing) that's the end," Angus said. "Because one, we have something we are fighting for and they are going to take that forward and be leaders on their new team to help that new team fight for it also."

Signing to a college is great, but that's not where your path stops. PSC fights for more than just wins and losses in the athletic world. They are fighting for a lifetime of success.

Lucas Semb can be reached at Lsemb@pensacol.gannett.com or 850-281-7414. Follow him on Twitter at @Lucas_Semb for stories and various Pensacola area score updates.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola State softball kicks off NJCAA Region 8 Tournament this week